The SR-71 Blackbird was developed by Kelly Johnson and Skunk Works as a high speed, high altitude reconnaissance aircraft to replace U-2 spy aircraft.
During the cold war, the reconnaissance was done with the help of slow, low flying aircrafts that were prone to Anti Aircraft Artillery.
Studies were already conducted to enhance the capabilities of U-2 to enable the aircraft to fly at higher altitude and make it less vulnerable while flying in the adversary airspace but little was achieved due to the design limitations of the aircraft.
The CIA wanted an aircraft that could fly faster and higher to evade surface to air and air to air missiles.
The first flight of SR-71 Blackbird was on 22 December 1964 and it entered service in January 1966.
A total of 32 aircrafts were built for the US Air Force out of which 12 aircraft were lost due to several reasons but none of the aircraft was shot down by the enemy.
SR-71 was built as a high speed mach 3+ reconnaissance aircraft capable of flying above 80,000 ft in altitude. It had no countermeasure systems, although it can evade surface to air missiles and air to air missiles simply by accelerating to mach 3 and flying at very high altitude.
NASA had also used the blackbird as a research platform to test various technologies including science camera developed by JPL and to reduce sonic booms at supersonic speeds.
All the SR-71 Blackbirds were retired in 1998 by USAF and remaining blackbirds were retired in 1999 by NASA.
SR-71 Blackbird Operations
The SR-71 Blackbird was used by the CIA to gather intelligence and reconnaissance over the Soviet Union. The SR-71 was able to evade Surface to Air Missiles by flying higher and faster while flying over the Soviet Union. No SR-71 Blackbirds have been shot down in active service of the aircraft.
SR-71 Design Characteristics
The aircraft is able to accelerate to mach 3.2 at an altitude of 80,000 ft. The titanium structure of SR-71 blackbird can withstand temperatures of 1050-1,600 °F with average temperature range of 462 to 622 °F.
It can carry high powered high resolution cameras that can capture the entire city in a single shot with extremely high resolution.
SR-71 Dimensions & Weights
Wingspan: 55 ft 7 in (16.94 m)
Length: 107 ft 5 in (32.74 m)
Height: 18 ft 6 in (5.64 m)
Wing area: 1,800 ft2 (170 m2)
Empty weight: 67,500 lb (30 600 kg)
Loaded weight: 170,000 lb (77 000 kg)
Max takeoff weight: 172,000 lb (78 000 kg)
SR-71 Performance
Combat Range: 2,900 nmi (5400 km)
Ferry Range: 3,200 nmi (5,925 km)
Service ceiling: 85,000 ft (25,900m, 16 mi)
Rate of climb: 11,810 ft/min (60 m/s)
Payload: 3,500 lb (1,600 kg) of sensors
SR-71 Blackbird World Record
On 28 July 1976, an SR-71 Blackbird flew at a speed of mach 3.3 (3529 km/h) setting the world record of fastest aircraft in the world. It also set another world record of flying at the highest altitude of 85069 feet on the same flight.
SR-72 Son of Blackbird
Lockheed Martin is working on a successor to SR-71 Blackbird known as SR-72 “Son of Blackbird”.
A similar aircraft “DarkStar”was also shown in the movie TopGun released in 2021 citing the aircraft with speed reaching Mach 10.
According to Lockheed Martin, the first SR-72 can fly in 2025.
